Army Spc. Jeffrey A. Williams, 20, a 2003 graduate of Wheaton Warrenville South High School, died Monday in Tal Afar when an explosive device detonated near his combat patrol, the Defense Department said. Army Spc. Jeffrey A. Williams, 20, a 2003 graduate of Wheaton Warrenville South High School, died Monday in Tal Afar when an explosive device detonated near his combat patrol, the Defense Department said.
Williams, who his mother said was a combat medic, was assigned to the Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Carson.
Williams, the oldest of four boys, enlisted in the Army just days after he graduated from high school, said his mother, Sandra Smith of Mansfield, Texas.
"He was a leader, he wasn't a follower," said Smith, whose family moved to Texas after her son joined the Army. "The boys are really having a hard time. Every last one of the kids is having a hard time because they really looked up to Jeffrey."
Williams was born in Kansas City, Mo., and was raised around military bases in California and Maryland. Smith worked as a civilian nurse at military hospitals and several members of Williams' family were in the military. In his weekly calls to his mother, Williams, who hoped to become a doctor, swapped stories with Smith on treating injuries - including sharing the time he inserted his first chest tube in a wounded patient. He had been in Iraq since March and told his mother he was looking forward to returning in February. "He was tired of it, because at first he said everything was peaceful and then the last four weeks they'd gotten rowdy again," she said. Military officials delivered the news to Smith's Texas home on Tuesday.